Edible frog | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Anura |
Family: | Ranidae |
Genus: | Pelophylax |
Species: | |
Binomial name | |
Pelophylax kl. esculentus | |
Synonyms | |
The edible frog (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) [1] [2] is a hybrid species of common European frog, also known as the common water frog or green frog (however, this latter term is also used for the North American species Rana clamitans ).
It is used for food, particularly in France as well as Germany and Italy, for the delicacy frog legs. [3] Females are between 5 and 9 cm (2.0 and 3.5 in) long, males between 6 and 11 cm (2.4 and 4.3 in).
This widespread and common frog has many common names, including European dark-spotted frog, European black-spotted pond frog, and European black-spotted frog.
Pelophylax esculentus is endemic to Europe. It naturally occurs from the northern half of France to western Russia, and from Estonia and Denmark to Bulgaria and northern Italy. The edible frog is introduced in Spain, [4] Norway [5] and the United Kingdom. [6] The natural range is nearly identical to that of P. lessonae . [7]
Pelophylax kl. esculentus is the fertile hybrid of the pool frog (Pelophylax lessonae) and the marsh frog (Pelophylax ridibundus). It reproduces by hybridogenesis (hemiclonally). [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Hybridogenesis implies that during gametogenesis hybrids (of RL genotype) exclude one parental genome (L or R) and produce gametes with an unrecombined genome of the other parental species (R or L, respectively), instead of containing mixed recombined parental genomes. [9] [10] [12] The hybrid populations are usually propagated by mating (backcrosses) with a sympatric parental species – P. lessonae (LL) or P. ridibundus (RR) – providing the second, discarded parental genome (L or R respectively). [9] [10] [12] Hybridogenesis is thus a hemiclonal mode of reproduction; half of the genome is transmitted to the next generation clonally, unrecombined (intact); the other half sexually, recombined. [13] [11] [12]
For example, in the most widespread so called L–E system, edible frogs Pelophylax kl. esculentus (RE) produce gametes of the marsh frog P. ridibundus (R) and mate with coexisting pool frogs Pelophylax lessonae (L gametes) – see below in the middle. [9] [12]
Because this hybrid requires another taxon as a sexual host to reproduce, usually one of the parental species, it is a klepton, [14] [15] [16] hence the addition of the "kl." (for klepton) in the species name. [17]
There are also known all-hybrid populations, where diploid hybrids (LR) coexist with triploid (LLR or LRR) hybrids, providing L or R genomes respectively. In this situation, diploid hybrids (LR) generate not only haploid R or L gametes, but also the diploid gametes (RL) needed to recreate triploids. [9] [10]
Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of (homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one from each of two parents; each set contains the same number of chromosomes, and the chromosomes are joined in pairs of homologous chromosomes. However, some organisms are polyploid. Polyploidy is especially common in plants. Most eukaryotes have diploid somatic cells, but produce haploid gametes by meiosis. A monoploid has only one set of chromosomes, and the term is usually only applied to cells or organisms that are normally diploid. Males of bees and other Hymenoptera, for example, are monoploid. Unlike animals, plants and multicellular algae have life cycles with two alternating multicellular generations. The gametophyte generation is haploid, and produces gametes by mitosis; the sporophyte generation is diploid and produces spores by meiosis.
Gametogenesis is a biological process by which diploid or haploid precursor cells undergo cell division and differentiation to form mature haploid gametes. Depending on the biological life cycle of the organism, gametogenesis occurs by meiotic division of diploid gametocytes into various gametes, or by mitosis. For example, plants produce gametes through mitosis in gametophytes. The gametophytes grow from haploid spores after sporic meiosis. The existence of a multicellular, haploid phase in the life cycle between meiosis and gametogenesis is also referred to as alternation of generations.
The marsh frog is a species of water frog native to Europe and parts of western Asia.
The pool frog is a European frog in the family Ranidae. Its specific name was chosen by the Italian herpetologist Lorenzo Camerano in 1882, in order to honour his master Michele Lessona.
Hybrid speciation is a form of speciation where hybridization between two different species leads to a new species, reproductively isolated from the parent species. Previously, reproductive isolation between two species and their parents was thought to be particularly difficult to achieve, and thus hybrid species were thought to be very rare. With DNA analysis becoming more accessible in the 1990s, hybrid speciation has been shown to be a somewhat common phenomenon, particularly in plants. In botanical nomenclature, a hybrid species is also called a nothospecies. Hybrid species are by their nature polyphyletic.
Graf's hybrid frog is a hybridogenic species in the true frog family Ranidae. It is found in France and Spain.
The Italian edible frog is a hybridogenic species in the true frog family Ranidae. These frogs are the offspring of P. bergeri and either P. ridibundus or the edible frog which is itself of hybrid origin.
Green frog or Green Frog, may refer:
Pelophylax is a genus of true frogs widespread in Eurasia, with a few species ranging into northern Africa. This genus was erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1843 to accommodate the green frogs of the Old World, which he considered distinct from the brown pond frogs of Carl Linnaeus' genus Rana.
In biology, a klepton and synklepton is a species that requires input from another biological taxon to complete its reproductive cycle. Specific types of kleptons are zygokleptons, which reproduce by zygogenesis; gynokleptons which reproduce by gynogenesis, and tychokleptons, which reproduce by a combination of both systems.
Parthenogenesis is a form of reproduction where eggs develop without fertilization, resulting in unisexual species. This phenomenon is closely related with reproductive modes such as hybridogenesis, where fertilization occurs, but the paternal DNA is not passed on. Among amphibians, it is seen in numerous frog and salamander species, but has not been recorded in caecilians.
The fertile hybrids of European water frogs reproduce by hybridogenesis (hemiclonally). This means that during gametogenesis, they discard the genome of one of the parental species and produce gametes of the other parental species. The first parental genome is restored by fertilization of these gametes with gametes from the first species. In all-hybrid populations of the edible frog Pelophylax kl. esculentus, however, triploid hybrids provide this missing genome.
Leszek Berger was a Polish herpetologist and malacologist.
Annemarie Ohler is an Austrian herpetologist and professor who concentrates on the taxonomy of amphibians. She has 3,602 citations and an h-index of 36.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)John C. Avise, 2008.–Clonality. The genetics, ecology, and evolution of sexual abstinence in vertebrate animals. New York, Oxford University Press: i-xi + 1-237. ISBN 978-0-19-536967-0.